The Supermoon of the Century Is Your New Wingman

Watch as the moon turns bigger and brighter than it's appeared in 70 years.

If you find something romantic about staring into the stars and making out in the moonlight, grab yourself a blanket and a date.

Because while “supermoons” are not all that uncommon, this Monday the moon will be the closest to Earth it has been since January 1948, and it won’t be this close again until 2034. It’ll appear up to 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than average.

Here’s how to make the most of it—and probably, you know, get laid.

1. First, educate yourself so you can sound like you know what you’re talking about. According to NASA, because the moon has an elliptical orbit, one side (the perigee) is about 30,000 miles closer to Earth than the other side (the apogee). When the sun, moon and earth line up (known as syzygy) with the perigee side of the moon facing us, and the moon at the opposite side of the earth from the sun, we get what NASA calls a perigee-syzygy (clever). Essentially, that causes the moon to appear bigger and brighter—but chances are you’ll forget these words anyway because, honestly, who came up with syzygy?

3. Scope out a dark, open place to lure your date in the least creepy way possible. If you live in a city, you may want to hop on a train to the ’burbs. Just look for it on the eastern horizon, preferably somewhere with (mostly) unobstructed views and low light. Seeing the moon dwarf an iconic piece of infrastructure, however, will make it that much more scalable, so long as it’s not hidden behind too many buildings.

4. Whisper sweet nothings about how the two of you can GTFO and run away to Mars together someday soon.